Barbecue Sauce

This is a tomato-based barbecue sauce in the general style of sauces found in Texas and St. Louis. It’s a bit sweet but not at all thick or gooey and it has enough vinegar to give it a pleasant tang.

Makes

About 1 gal.

Hardware

• 5 qt. sauteuse pan
• 12 quart non-reactive pot
• Food processor with chopping blade

Ingredients

6	med		onions
			veg oil
1	can		tomato puree (28 oz)
3	cans		tomatoes, with juice (3 x 28oz)
2	c		white vinegar
1/4	c		liquid smoke
1	c		Coke
1	c		Gulden's "spicy" brown mustard
8	oz		dark brown sugar
2	Tblsp		kosher salt
1	tsp		black pepper
1	tsp		sweet paprika
1	tsp		chili powder

Procedure

1. Roughly chop the onions.


2. Working in batches, put the sauteuse pan over a high flame and heat some oil; when it’s good and hot, dump in some onions and cook until they start to turn brown; dump them in the 12 qt. pot and repeat as many times as necessary. If there’s a lot of gunk stuck on the pan, deglaze with a bit of the vinegar between batches.


3. While the onions are cooking, open the cans and dump everything but the vinegar and Coke into the big pot. Turn the heat to high and start to bring to a boil, stirring frequently.


4. After the onions are all cooked and the pan deglazed for the last time, pour any remaining liquid into the big pot.


5. Just before the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer as slowly as possible for 4 hours.


6. Allow the sauce to cool.


7. Working in batches, puree the sauce in the food processor.

Notes

This sauce is the base for my Piedmont-style barbecue sauce (similar to those found in western North Carolina).

Approximately 27 calories per ounce.

Rating

Difficulty: Very easy

Time: About 5 hours

Precision: 2

Source

Adapted from The Thrill of The Grill, by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby.